More money from GOP govs means more mudslinging

The Republican Governors Association has plowed another $1.25 million into the campaign for Washington Governor, its $8.585 million dwarfing any other spending for any office on the statewide ballot in November.

The latest outlay, revealed Monday in filings with the Public Disclosure Commission, means much mud will flow onto our TV screens during the next three weeks.

The Republican Governors Association is doing the dirty work in the race. While Republican Rob McKenna’s TV spots have been largely positive, and accurate in their claims, the GOP Governors Association are negative, nasty and either untrue or misleading.

Inslee

The RGA initially aired a spot claiming Democrat Jay Inslee voted, in Congress, to impose a big tax increase on small business. In Republican boilerplate, heard in many campaigns, it claimed: “Local businesses struggling to stay open and Inslee votes them a massive tax increase.”

Robert Mak of KING 5 News found the anti-Inslee spot to be “deceptive.”

The “tax increase” was the Affordable Care Act, health care reform. It requires that employers offer health insurance to workers by 2014, or pay a fine. It also includes tax incentives for businesses to do so.

Why deceptive? A fine is not a “massive tax increase.” Nor would it likely apply to the woman standing outside her coffee shop in the TV spot. Under “Obamacare,” the penalty for not offering health insurance applies only to businesses with more than 50 workers.

The Seattle Times, although relentless in its support of Rob McKenna, found its truth needle bent out of shape by another Republican Governors Association ad.

It featured films of firefighters and a “first responder” claiming that Inslee made a proposal that would put “the retirement of our first responders and their families at risk.”

Why? When he announced for Governor 16 months ago, Inslee said he would “propose using a small, defined portion of our state pension funds to create a pool of capital available for startup, innovative companies that pledge to start here, to stay here.”

McKenna was on him that day, saying the proposal was too risky. State Treasurer Jim McIntire later gave Inslee a background briefing on the legal obligations to maximize returns faced by the State Investment Board.

Inslee withdrew the proposal more than 15 months ago, and told an Association of Washington Business Debate in Spokane that he “will not propose changed to our investment in our pension system.”

Of course, the Democrats have an outfit called Our Washington running their own negative ads about McKenna. It has received more than $3 million from the Democratic Governors Association. The Our Washington ads are equally misleading, and have the crummy feel of a Washington, D.C., consultant who doesn’t know diddly-squat about the state.

But . . .

The McKenna campaign is crying foul, from TV ads on the airwaves to Fairview Fannie’s editorial page, about negative and unfair Inslee ads that depict the Republican candidate a foe on women’s issues.

If they are that concerned about an above-board campaign offering voters an honest choice, aren’t McKenna managers obligated to tell the Republican Governors Association not to turn our airwaves into an open sewer?